I wasn't happy with the arc of this article. It started off so compellingly and went into some interesting stuff about the totemic nature of personal objects and some categories they might fall into and then descended into facebook. I really wish it had at least gone into more depth about the correlations between social media and personal identity, but ok, I get that this is adapted from a book and is essentially a plug. Anyway, I guess this resonated with me because I do have a lot of personal totems, including my dog. Of course, I can't know for certain how other people in my life view their personal items, but I often wonder about other people's choices in terms of things they carry with them most often, or the clothes they wear or how they furnish their homes. I bet those choices will begin to change for most of my friends as we enter our 30's.